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A review by spilled_paint_and_pages
Quicksilver by Callie Hart
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
If you like to turn your brain off for a read, this may be a book for you, but if you care about following the plot, I would pick something else.
I haven't been this conflicted on a book in a while. If I weren't reading this for a book club, I would have DNFed. The beginning of this book is full of contradictions and plot holes. However, I think the last 15-20% of the book is better but not great. I typically am not picky about writing style as long as the banter and general concept are good, but I found most of these to be lacking.
Quicksilver has an interesting concept, but there were so many plot holes and inconsistencies that I never knew if what I was being told was true. So much of the early world-building was later changed. It seems like the author just forgot the setup of the world they created.Kingfisher is an Oath Bound Fae who can't lie, but he makes several statements that aren't true. I suppose you could say the lies were actually sarcastic comments, but that doesn't change that the statement wasn't true. It didn't work for me and added confusion to my understanding of how the Oath Bound Fae communicate.
I really struggled with all the content containing Saeris' mom. Whenever Saeris speaks of her, it is handled so callously, and I found it incredibly off-putting. On the first page, she briefly mentions her mother's "peasant blood" on the sand and then immediately talks about how handsome the guard is who has captured her. If someone you loved was murdered, I wouldn't be using degrading terms like peasant to describe them, then fawning and flirting over an authority who is part of the system that caused her death. It is very tone-deaf. In the first couple of chapters, it is said Saeris' mother was a librarian before she died and that the town loved her mother who was murdered and left to rot in the gutter with crows pecking at her corpse. However, later in the book, there is a jarring scene that instead states she was a sex-worker who was murdered and had her body desecrated by both guards and the townspeople. It's like the original story was forgotten. They also took her body and burned it in the morning, once again changing our understanding of the FMC's origins.
There were a lot of issues with misogynistic perspectives that were very apparent in any scenes with secondary female characters. Danya (who probably has the most scenes after the FMC) is characterized entirely as a bitch, who doesn't understand what matters in the war, and is permanently sent away after she single handedly causes issues with an all female clan of witches. Everlayne, whom we meet at the start of the book quite briefly, seems like a great, likable character. She's quite feminine but is capable of standing up for herself. Then we don't see her again until the last third of the book, where she's taken captive and used as a bargaining tool with the threat of sexual assault. Saeris our MC is a not like other girls character who hates dresses. The author also needs to make sure we're arware how thin she is multiple times through the novel. She barely eats at any meal and says she barely eats verbatim. I understood this take when food was scarce, but when it was openly available this should have changed, especially with how athletic she has to be (which is why she hates dresses).
Many characters were also written very similarly, personality-wise. I thought Carrion and Lorreth felt the most individual and they gave me most of my enjoyment for this read. Unfortunately, my likable character list dropped down to one after Lorreth out of character states 'next time she tries to hit him, he'll put her over his knee and spank her' about one of his fellow warriors.
Lastly the main vampire villain turns out to be gay and obsessed with Kingfisher, with all their interactions being incredibly uncomfortable, insinuating SA. Yes, Carrion has moments where it's implied that he is bi, but for the only clear queer representation in the book to be vilified made me really uncomfortable. I was considering continuing the series as the writting seemed to get better towards the end, but the villified queer dynamic with no positive queer representaation in the novel made me very uncomfortable.
I haven't been this conflicted on a book in a while. If I weren't reading this for a book club, I would have DNFed. The beginning of this book is full of contradictions and plot holes. However, I think the last 15-20% of the book is better but not great. I typically am not picky about writing style as long as the banter and general concept are good, but I found most of these to be lacking.
Quicksilver has an interesting concept, but there were so many plot holes and inconsistencies that I never knew if what I was being told was true. So much of the early world-building was later changed. It seems like the author just forgot the setup of the world they created.
I really struggled with all the content containing Saeris' mom. Whenever Saeris speaks of her, it is handled so callously, and I found it incredibly off-putting. On the first page, she briefly mentions her mother's "peasant blood" on the sand and then immediately talks about how handsome the guard is who has captured her. If someone you loved was murdered, I wouldn't be using degrading terms like peasant to describe them, then fawning and flirting over an authority who is part of the system that caused her death. It is very tone-deaf. In the first couple of chapters, it is said Saeris' mother was a librarian before she died and that the town loved her mother who was murdered and left to rot in the gutter with crows pecking at her corpse. However, later in the book, there is a jarring scene that instead states she was a sex-worker who was murdered and had her body desecrated by both guards and the townspeople. It's like the original story was forgotten. They also took her body and burned it in the morning, once again changing our understanding of the FMC's origins.
There were a lot of issues with misogynistic perspectives that were very apparent in any scenes with secondary female characters. Danya (who probably has the most scenes after the FMC) is characterized entirely as a bitch, who doesn't understand what matters in the war, and is permanently sent away after she single handedly causes issues with an all female clan of witches. Everlayne, whom we meet at the start of the book quite briefly, seems like a great, likable character. She's quite feminine but is capable of standing up for herself. Then we don't see her again until the last third of the book, where she's taken captive and used as a bargaining tool with the threat of sexual assault. Saeris our MC is a not like other girls character who hates dresses. The author also needs to make sure we're arware how thin she is multiple times through the novel. She barely eats at any meal and says she barely eats verbatim. I understood this take when food was scarce, but when it was openly available this should have changed, especially with how athletic she has to be (which is why she hates dresses).
Many characters were also written very similarly, personality-wise. I thought Carrion and Lorreth felt the most individual and they gave me most of my enjoyment for this read. Unfortunately, my likable character list dropped down to one after Lorreth out of character states 'next time she tries to hit him, he'll put her over his knee and spank her' about one of his fellow warriors.
Lastly the main vampire villain turns out to be gay and obsessed with Kingfisher, with all their interactions being incredibly uncomfortable, insinuating SA. Yes, Carrion has moments where it's implied that he is bi, but for the only clear queer representation in the book to be vilified made me really uncomfortable. I was considering continuing the series as the writting seemed to get better towards the end, but the villified queer dynamic with no positive queer representaation in the novel made me very uncomfortable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infertility, Alcohol, War